Wednesday, April 22, 2015

The unfortunateness of being a motor moron

Still dealing with the question of why I couldn't tell the difference between most of the left side of my head and the right side.  I can sense in terms of pain and touch quite easily but that is different than movement proprioception. In practising physical therapy there is sometimes the unkind phrase that the patient is a 'motor moron' (applied usually to the non- neurologically involved patient).  It could be a very smart patient or one not quite as bright but when you would ask for a specific movement you would get something completely different than what was asked. Many times it was the phrasing of the language but plenty often the person was incapable of processing what was said in their body. In the training based on the work of Moshe Feldenkrais a generalization could be made, that the person could not differentiate the separate parts and structures in his/her body image.

In most simple terms I am saying I could not tell the difference in movement of the left side and right side of most of my head. The statement at first glance seems somewhat 'moronic' besides it's obvious reflection on myself.

PS Thinking more about this if I was numbed on the right side I believe I would still be able to tell if my mouth was opening on my left. So the above argument needs to be refined to feeling where the movement was initiated. That I could not feel the initiation of the movement on my left side of my head. It feels like I am developing a separate movement image.

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

The Truth is a Half Less Scanned

The Truth is a Pathless Land

From previous post.

We used to believe the two parts of the brain work in harmony, but according to London psychiatrist Iain McGilchrist, there’s a definite shift in our modern culture which favors left-brain dominance—and it’s something we ought to watch out for and correct. In The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World (Yale University Press, 2009), McGilchrist discusses the hemispheres and their different “personalities,” and then shows a sweeping dissertation on the history of Western civilization as seen from the context of the divided brain. - 

Tales from Both Sides of the Brain

Why didn't I 'perceive' the left side of my tongue/throat/head as having the ability to control it's movement and instead perceiving it as one unit? I think for several reasons. One it is more efficient for control.  Two I think it is what I see in most part in others from a very young age. Other people used one half of their faces in a less communicative way and I mimicked what I saw.When I now try and mimic what I see in others with my left half of face to their left half of face there is a feeling that I am connecting with the emotional/thought content expressed. It is an active process with my left side of head.

Saturday, April 4, 2015

Left Right and Different


The Divided Brain

We used to believe the two parts of the brain work in harmony, but according to London psychiatrist Iain McGilchrist, there’s a definite shift in our modern culture which favors left-brain dominance—and it’s something we ought to watch out for and correct. In The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World (Yale University Press, 2009), McGilchrist discusses the hemispheres and their different “personalities,” and then shows a sweeping dissertation on the history of Western civilization as seen from the context of the divided brain. - 

Tales from Both Sides of the Brain

GAZZANIGA: ... And together, that's where the whole popularized notion of "left brain, right brain" came out of. And it was a little over-sold. And as we moved on through the study of these patients and others for fifty years, we learned, it's not quite that simple.
FLATO: Yeah, because we, everyone, walks around saying, I'm a left hand, a right-brained person. That's too right.
GAZZANIGA: It's fun, cheap. What's the new word now? Edutainment. It's a little something and a lot of fun.
FLATO: Michael, that word's thirty-years-old.

I have not read either of the books linked above but enjoyed listening and reading the linked interviews.  I especially found Dr. Gazzaniga reports on cases of the right hemisphere being able to talk after many years of silence interesting. The awareness of my left sublingual musculature as a different structure from my right sublingual musculature did not exist for me until I went looking for it. In the same manner I was unaware that I did not see the persona in the left side of someone else's face. It took a great deal of time and effort and play to discern the difference of how I see another's face and the way there is a total adaptation of my musculoskeletal orientation based on what I see. I believe I can now talk using both hemispheres of my brain based on the new musculature and perceptual differentiation.